Apple patent filing reveals potential whispering Siri functionality

Hey Siri, where's the nearest bathroom?

Ever wanted to use Siri in a crowded place -- such as a subway, bus or supermarket -- without the assistant blaring her response to everyone in the vicinity? If so, you might be in luck if a patent filed by Apple back in 2016 ever becomes a reality.

The patent in question, which was just made public today, details the functionality of new tech that would allow Siri to automatically detect the pitch of your voice and adjust the volume of her response to match yours. According to the patent, a feature like this would allow the user to "[avoid] disturbing others and [protect their] privacy."

Since many questions you might ask Siri could indeed be of a personal nature, a version of the popular virtual assistant that can intelligently adapt to the user's situation could be useful to many.

As reported by Gizmodo, this technology would work by detecting the "amplitude and frequency patterns" of a user's voice input to determine whether or not a whispered response from Siri is in order.

As intriguing as this patent is, there's no guarantee that Apple will ever actually use the technology behind it in future devices. Filing patents without the intention to use them is a fairly common occurrence, as demonstrated by game publisher Activision being granted a "microtransaction-based matchmaking" patent back in October.